Month: July 2015

About a month ago I was listening to my favorite Christian radio station and this phrase came into my head “It’s okay to not be okay. We exist to be the example of how God makes something beautiful from broken shards. ” Part of it is from a song.( by Plumb ) Part of it is just how my brain filtered it and laid it on my heart. I put the phrase on Facebook hoping it would touch hearts as much as mine was. It did and I promised to write a blog on it. So, here it is V. Sorry it took me so long.

I get this beautiful picture of Christ, lovingly creating me to be this amazing work of art. And I, not long after He creates me manage to break His work of art. The fact is we are all a little broken. Through ourselves and through other broken people and a world fraught with disaster that often leaves us shattered. The imagery of that can be crushing… I am SO GLAD that God doesn’t just get annoyed and throw us away like we do a favorite coffee cup that has fallen to the floor. The beauty of grace is that God takes our brokenness and turns it into something amazing when we lean on Him to do it.

Have you ever heard of Kintsugi? Very simply put ( you can read more about it Here ) it is a form of what is considered to be specialized art. The artist takes BROKEN pottery and using gold puts the piece back together creating a breathtaking work of art that sparkles and is usable again.

This is what I picture God doing with us. Every time we are broken. In His love He pours himself out over our broken shards and puts us together again. Oh, the cracks are still there. Most of them GLARINGLY obvious now. But, as a whole we are worth more than we were to begin with because of our understanding of what we have been given. Thankfully, God is a MASTER of pottery and He can repair us over and over again. He knows that we will never be done being broken and His repairs will only be completed when our lives on earth are done.

Imagine though…the amount of GOLD- worth more than the pottery itself- that will exist within us each time we allow God to do His work in us? At the end of our lives, when His finished product is complete. We will be more gold than pottery at that point I would think.

So, where does that leave us?

We know we are broken. Maybe we exist to allow our brokenness to shine in the glare of a world that remains broken? You wouldn’t take a piece of pottery you loved to be repaired with gold if your intention is to put it in a cabinet and never see the light of day. Yes, displaying it risks the chance of it being broken again. Yes, the cost of repair is not cheap. Good thing the bulk of our heart repair has been paid by the artist himself! Our cost may be high. Sometimes extremely painful. But, I can’t imagine that any pain we endure is what Jesus felt being betrayed, crucified, and serving for us in hell simply because He loved us. He was perfect. Had never made a mistake. Had never hurt a friend. Had never stepped out of line… and yet He took on that price for AN ENTIRE WORLD. How crushing that must have been. It stalls my breath to think about. He did that for me. and you. and those you’ve never met. Knowing that even despite our best efforts… He will STILL be choosing to forgive our brokenness time and time again later. Only the most dedicated and loving of artists could create a piece of art KNOWING that. And yet He did.

I think it’s good to be somewhat transparent with the world. They need to know we are imperfect but, being perfected. They need to know that having a relationship with Jesus doesn’t mean being intact forever. In fact it means we may look more broken than anyone else we know… and letting God’s gold pour over us to turn that into something beautiful is a process. I’m pretty sure it takes those artists to while to fix everything. Depending on the crack it may take longer to cure. It isn’t that we are unbroken in the process. It is simply that it is OK to not be Okay and to admit that we are in our humanness still being repaired.

It’s important that we allow the world to see the gold amidst the shards.

I haven’t written on this blog since April. In the time since my last post honestly, I didn’t know how to follow up. What do you follow a post about grief with?

The answer and realization I have come to is that you don’t. Nothing follows death and leaves the same footprint it would have previously. You have no choice other than to keep moving. The sun still rises. Babies are still born. Loved ones still die. Jobs are lost, hearts are won, there are proposals and divorces a positive and negative a yin and yang to life here on earth that just keeps going…

So, after making a few statements on facebook and being asked ” When are you going to start writing again?” I am back. (Hopefully more like you favorite aunt coming to visit vs. your scary uncle who smells like old cheese)

In coming weeks I plan to write on some heavier topics. Not heavy subjects really. Just not light and fluffy clouds born of rainbow unicorn farts. (I can say farts. It’s my blog.) I have 3 things I have been writing in the back of my mind I feel like it is time to share. The first entitled” The purpose is to live Broken”. The second entitled “I may not need you but, I wouldn’t mind having you” and the third “weight bearing friends and why we need them”

These subjects may or may not appeal to you. I need to write them anyway. If for no other purpose than to get my heart cleared of writing them in my quiet moments constantly (My writer, artist and singer friends know what I mean).

Don’t worry… I still plan to share some amazing other things as well… such as DIY’s, Recipes and comedic moments provided by my life.